Like a lot of other North American’s I have Native American DNA. Whats It mean?

More than anything it means that just 7 generations back you had well over 100 ancestors and nobody knows who all of them are. It also means that yes, a great deal of white Americans have some Native DNA.

Its only generations of “Moving on up” in apparent whiteness that fostered this idea the Native American genocide was all that complete. While the Native Americans were surely dealt a shit hand by history where lot really were outright killed and many more suffered horribly, theres more of their DNA left than people realized. Til now. Personally I’m fairly sure my low percentage of unidentifiable DNA is probably native american too, but who knows? I can say in 2 years on 23&me its the one racial category that has only kept going up, harvesting out of my “Unidentifiable” DNA( a category that keeps going down).

For the ones among us like myself finding out now through science there’s no cultural component. For the most part we got here the same way. We are descended from willing participants in forgetting the Native American Heritage. Even in the 1970s the ‘Defeated Noble Savage’ thing was still out there and people just were happy NOT to verbally pass that information on to their kids. The truth was they had become US. We’re still here and depending on how you crunch it; maybe there’s more of us than ever.

Now, like David Cone’s perfect game or Aaron Boone’s home run it seems there’s more people claiming ‘I was there’ than any stadium could ever hold. In the case of the Native DNA its the opposite of a baseball milestone. We didn’t realize we were at this event. We ARE this event. We’re Aaron Boone’s Home run! For perspective on this huge number think about this; most every latino is part Native American right off the bat.

Marketing by the DNA Companies

The DNA Research Corporations showed they trusted in math when they started using Native American Ancestry as a pitch.

Basically a day came when they had a sample size so large it was scientific. Then, there was one somewhat astonishing find – that a lot of Native American DNA is diffused through the population of North America.

These DNA companies saw the evidence of the prevalence of Native DNA in small amounts marbled through American demographics. Then they checked their math and when everything added up they somewhat cynically exploited Native American heritage. This Disney-fication of Native American history is a problem and a future blog post of it’s own. Whatever, it really went down that way. It’s probably sort of morally a bit wrong.

That same math tells the DNA Research Corporations that there’s enough people running around with minimal amounts of Native DNA to have serious cover on any criticism. In other words- It was going to be them too! Looking in the mirror they realized surely as many as 1/3 of them, the DNA researchers, and their employees had Native American DNA as well and therefore could turn around and say “Fuck you, I got my Indian Card” to anyone else.

Having some Native DNA is marketed as an exotic, semi magical thing that makes you the right kind of different in a good way. The truth is the DNA collection companies are merely cynical truth tellers making money off a til now little known fact. Forgetting for the moment that some good came of it and it’s not like they were just lying; 23&me and Ancestry.com proceeded in this direction knowing, for a fact, before anyone else that so many people had some Native American DNA that they could use it for a mass multi-media marketing campaign in the US.

The real story of course is one of genocide. So while there’s reason to celebrate your Native American DNA; the first thing it should tell you is that somewhere in your genealogical past, probably over 150 years ago, you had a white rapist in your family tree. So it should be an eye opener about just how poorly behaved the pure Europeans were when they showed up in North America. You probably should read “Custer Died for Your Sins” and if movies are your thing see amazing documentary “Reel Injun”

How did this happen? Well for one thing outright breeding people out of existence is nothing new. It’s been practiced by victors at least as far back as Rome and beyond into the deepest reaches of antiquity. How did it work out? Well, you don’t see a lot of people saying they’re part Samnite, do you? This despite the fact that the Samnite’s DNA was extremely successful to the point it’s forever intertwined into all Italian’s DNA. But then, of course, History was written by the victors.

Who Are We?

Very simply the raising of awareness and building of a database that substantiates the fact- while there’s always been a lot of partly Native American’s walking around never have so many been aware of it til now.

Of course we can continue to opt out and just be americans who have native ancestors. That’s worked so far.

If we want to emulate our native ancestors I guess we should look to the existing populations for guidance. I’m not sure what they may think of us, and I can’t speak for anyone but myself.

Here’s one personal aspect; I know before I send more money back to Ireland I would more likely give to a Native American Charity. Certainly hanging a dream catcher from the rearview and boring your friends with the story is the least productive thing you can do. At least respect the remaining communities and start pushing for greater respect by the government toward native americans.

Without lying I can say I think there’s a really good shot that Native American is the country’s fastest growing ethnicity. As little as 100 years ago massacring “Indians” was still a thing, it really takes WWI for modern racial sensibilities that we can identify with or understand to start to slowly emerge.

We’re all equally Americans. The sooner you get together with that in your mind the better. White, black, whatever. No one’s an “other”. Avoid thinking in terms of “Them-ism”. By the way it’s probably a good idea to just apply that to everyone, not just the partially native out there.

The truth is the genocide against the Native Americans only seemed to be extremely effective. The truth was that the Native Americans were lurking just below the skin of all these apparent White People.

Some estimates claim as much as 1/3 of all Americans have SOME native DNA. One day we’ll probably have a real reliable number on this and not have to estimate. And by “one day’ I mean within about 5 years.

And that’s as much as it means.

Seven generations back you have 128 direct ancestors. So 7 generations back you are getting like what? 1/128th their DNA over the time between like 1700 til now was passed to you and that’s it.

At some point between the time seventh generation was giving way to the 64 members of the 6th generation back from you there were 100 direct ancestors and that’s where you can start to say “In 1750, before America, ‘what was going on?’ on the East Coast of the US and in the Caribbean?” The answer? “Lots and lots of interracial sex by both the willing and unwilling. And of course, as the white people stab west they proliferate with the natives just as soon as they can manage it.

Another quick way to sum it up would be “On a mass scale and by any measure, White People used to act even worse than they do now.”

And that’s a lot to think about. And that’s why there’s this whole separate post from a ways back about when I tested my own DNA and discovered I had Native American DNA.

I hereby disavow Chris Matthews as a legitimate media voice and feed him to the Volcano God. While this is sure to please everyone on the right, I have lefty reasoning’s for doing this. Before anything else I will say this; he’s no great credit to the Irish, of which I am one. Not a disgrace mind you, but really not a big deal. Now, on to the Butcher’s work!

Matthews gets to be the very first person to be fed to the Volcano God, who I

Chris Matthews in a rare calm moment

invented earlier today as a useful metaphor. It also sounds more fun than just calling someone boring!

Matthews has done nothing to deserve being first to be thrown into the bubbling caldera of magma, but the Volcano is hungry and I have to start somewhere. He merely survived the media Tsunami of Common Sense that has slowly consumed all the most extreme voices on the right as well as some on the left since the Tea Party reached its apex in 2010.

The Volcano, a particularly useful metaphor, is our ‘National Conversation’. Its on an Island somewhere in the Basic Cable Sea and it is peopled by would be opinion makers. It demands from time to time to be fed pundits and other politi-porn TV types who are allegedly tasked with facilitating the National Conversation on some pertinent topic.Among the tribes on the Island are the tribe of the Political Panel Show.

The tried and true Political Panel Show is supposed to involve an enlightened discussion by experts on a pertinent issue. To that end Chris Matthews squanders great power by focusing his show on an unlikely hero, himself. This is even more incredible if you watch the show regularly because Matthews seems to hold himself in complete contempt. He’s got a lot of apologizing to do before he circumlocuates his way to the vicinity of the topic at hand, whatever that may be. It doesn’t matter; it’s not going to be addressed until the final 15 seconds of the segment because Matthews is on a nonstop rant. He’s something of a walking contradiction. Consider this as proof; he refers to the mass of hypomanic unrestrained genius meets rock star that was John Fitzergerald Kennedy as “elusive”. This is like calling a brick wall ‘subtle’.

In the name of Moderation, Understanding and Advancing the Collective Civic Conversation I hereby sacrifice Christopher John “Chris” Matthews to Volcano the Volcano God!!!!

Altar of the Volcano God

I have long been a non fan of Hardball with Chris Matthews. It’s an Orwellian mix of poorly troped recycled Kennedy Era liberalism on Stupid Pills. At the helm of this shambling mess of banal assertions shouted over the smartest people in the world’s opinions is none other than the Eponymous Hardballer himself- Chris Matthews.

Matthews is a distinguished journalist with an audience of hundreds of thousands, and he will overstate this every chance he gets. It’s not that he’s unlikeable, I want to like him, and I just have gotten to know him too well.

I know that Howard Fineman is a genius, and having him as panel member is a great ‘get’. Talking over him in what basically amounts to putting your own spin on restating the obvious would seem an easily avoidable mistake.

Sporting a big name, big mouth, big ego and a personality that reminds me of the things I both loved and hated about the Marist Brothers who ran my school, Matthews cajoles the distinguished geniuses he gets on his show with nonstop self obsessed faux humility. One third of all people on MSNBC owe their careers to the fact that they started a few really interesting sentences on Hardball which Matthews then co-opted. This always leaves you appreciating the panelists more. What could Peggy Noonan have said if she were not over talked as Matthews’ waxed poetic about Jack Kennedy? When you take it a step firther and realize she was talking about Mitt Romney, the least Kennedy-like person not named Bush to ever walk the4,000 year old Republican version of Earth.

Everything in Chris Matthews World View revolves around his fascination with the Kennedy’s, who must think he’s at least as creepy as Taylor Swift. He threads the “JFK Needle” upon every opportunity. You wouldn’t think Bill Press had meant to devolve into a post mortem of the Cuban Missile Crisis when Chris asked him about the Taliban, but that’s what you’ll get!

Chris Matthews is the definition of guilty. Of all the things he is guilty of, the worst thing perhaps is Guilt itself. He feels bad about everything. He’s an apologist for his relative wealth, his entire race, all peoples of Irish descent, the Church , the entirety of all mistakes in Western Civilization and occasionally, for over talking his guests. The last apology is accepted.

It goes beyond the obvious and seems pathological. He is chronically sorry about everything that has gone wrong with America. It’s not so much I think he’s wrong. Sometimes he’s not. My problem is that there is a point of a panel show and it’s not to find out everything about the host in every episode. The best episodes of Hardball are the ones guest hosted by Michael Smerconish. Smerconish has also guest hosted for OReilly, another idiot who perpetuates a whole bunch of other Irish Stereotypes that make me cringe like a Lucky Charms Commercial

Someone should either fire Matthews, or spike his red bull with valium

Conservatism revolving around the 1980’s and Ronald Reagan in an idealized, ritualized and unrealistic way. The influence of this aspect of modern American Conservatism is palpable yet there has been very little discussion of it.

The classic historical Cargo Cult refers to a religious phenomenonthat arose on the isolated pacific islands used as bases by various militaries during the Second World War. The native islanders in places like Papua, New Guinea had not had much contact with the outside world. Their ways of viewing the day to day world included a good dose of the

paranormal. If someone got sick, perhaps a curse had been put upon them. Flood? Famine? Perhaps the villagers aren’t living up to the standards of their pantheon of deities. A thumbnail description would be that they fed the Volcano to pacify the gods,who were surely a bit crazy.
After the Second World War began in the Pacific the lives of the native islanders were subject to massive culture shock. Literally overnight and literally out of the sky in the form of shiny silver airplanes as well as great iron beasts from the sea came the mid-20th century. None of the previous limited contacts with outsiders provided a frame of reference for what transpired on their islands, their very world, as emerged over the weeks following arrival of troops from both sides of the conflict.

To these isolated natives the idea that an internal combustion engine would spin gears and operate pistons to spin a propeller to power a vehicle capable of carrying goods or people was inconceivable. Imagine bringing a flashlight, cigarette lighter and .9mm pistol via time traveling helicopter to Dark Ages Europe to get any sort of grip on this.
To the natives of islands such as those of New Guinea the planes were not

–Members of the John Frum cult in New Guinea imitating American Soldiers in their “ritual”

machines but great beasts akin to hollow metal dragons. They were summoned from the sky by rituals at a holy temple, or as we would call it, a Military Airfield. The “rituals” were the day to day operations of the base. Waiving in incoming planes with flags and lighting runways. Group s of identically clad men marching in formation, chanting magic words (read: military cadences) and sometimes even firing their bang sticks!!

In the wake of the Second World War these isolated bases were mostly abandoned and life, for the natives, returned to ‘normal’. But it was a ‘New Normal’. They had become accustomed to the gleaming aluminum dragons regularly summoned by the clergy (read: US Navy Sea Bees) with the sacred relics (read: radios, landing lights and parades). No longer were the great beasts from the air and sea disgorging the material goods they now so desired. Gone was the supply of

A replica Second World War plane used in John Frum Movements rituals. Is the GOP Elephant now an equivalent Trojan Horse of Willful Blindness?canned goods, textiles and the giant crates that had seemed like enormous wooden eggs that birthed

a smug Mitt Romney exulting in the opportunity to make hay off Ambassador Chris Stevens and others even as they were dying for their country. Only the 47% comment hurt him more

the coveted “cargo”.
In a turn of events still being studied by sociologists and historians, the Cargo Cults emerged. The natives formed into cults of sorts and imitated in ritualistic fashion the actions of the men who had summoned the great beats and cargo from the sky. Coconuts were fashioned into radio headsets, bamboo control towers were created. Uniformly dressed men marched in ritual manners similar to the military drills they had seen under the mistaken belief that by simply doing so they themselves would please the gods of the sky and bring down the shiny metal beasts filled with goodies. These beliefs were personified in the form of an image of an American World War 2 Sailor, frequently portrayed as African American, known as “John Frum”. Think of him as a sort of Santa-Jesus type. British occupied areas developed similar cults based on an idealized perception of Prince Phillip.
The John Frum Movement and Prince Phillip Societies still exist today in New Guinea. Despite the fact that these places slowly became less isolated and were slowly but steadily overtaken by rational explanations of the outside world some still cling to the Cargo Cult beliefs. In the case of the Prince Phillip society egotistical detachment from reality is shared by the object of their affection. Prince Phillip perhaps unwittingly, endorses the cult’s beliefs by sending gifts and autographs. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that what is really needed, by the prince and his worshipers, is some help handling a brutal but needed dose of reality. This need also applies to early 21st Century Tea party Republicans. Ritualized Reaganistic Worldview has become a meme accepted by most Republicans, albeit for the most part unknowingly.

The Gangster Planet featured in the Original Star Trek Episode “A Piece of the Action” is an illustration of a classic “Cargo Cult”. One of the shows most popular episodes and most Americans only glimpse at Cargo Cults

where an isolated planet had been exposed to 23rd century technology by earlier space travelers. When the Enterprise arrives a generation later they find an entire culture influenced by a book the first explorers from Earth left behind about 1920’s gangster culture in places like Chicago and New York. By looking, dressing and acting like the gangsters they read about the natives of Sigma Iota IV were attempting to make a great leap forward by throwing themselves feet first into imitating a society that had been outlined in book that to them seemed a blue print to the “cargo” they had seen accompanying the first earthmen they met, technology and abilities that would provide for worry free prosperity.
How does this apply to early 21st century American Conservatism? The Republican Party is now packed with under qualified ideologues who espouse an unrealistic image of a worry free past, in this case, the Go Go 1980’s. The images of John Frumm (a bastardization of “John From America”) and Prince Phillip have been replaced by an idealized, unrealistic image of Ronald Reagan. Like John Frumm, Ritual Reagan is a demi god who summoned “Cargo” (read: Worry free prosperity) through rituals that included sparring with the Russians, a somewhat narrow social view and an overemphasis on an extreme interpretation of “Christian” thought.
To one degree or another every single modern conservative is a member of a Reagan oriented Cargo Cult. The Cargo Cult mentality has threaded its way into every aspect of current Republican narrative.
The Cargo Cult Volcano God demands certain sacrifices be made lest it grow angry and erupt. Among other things, it demands ritual.
Repeated mawkish Ritualistic displays by Romney have so far done nothing to dispel the validity of the Cargo Cult Assertion.

Citizen Romney did everything he could to work the Cargo Cult crowd. As a result failure analysis has given way to willful ignorance on the right

During his chaotic and doomed 2012 campaign Romney seized upon every perceived advantage and this was no exception. It’s not a difficult role in its Ritualistic Form. There’s some passing physical resemblance, both coincidental and contrived between Romney and Reagan. Among these are their hair, approximate build and hypomanic personalities. Romney seemed to be smugly emitting what he seemingly thought was a subliminal puppet show where he played Ritualized Reagan. Pushing on the physical he layered on a veneer of the cold warrior aspect of Reagan by strapping on the coconut headphones of some sort of bamboo transmitter and sending pugilistic messages to the Russians, who were clearly NOT a threat to the United States in 2012. Another Ritual Reagan rain dance was over emphasizing the level of danger posed by Iran. While an outlaw nation and a sponsor of terrorism, the current sanctions and global shunning seem to be worth sticking worth for a while to most Americans who are leery of another American Ground War in an unstable part of the world.

I think in the last few weeks of the 2012 election Mitt Romney became a true believer in his own Reagan-ness; operating with the Ritualized Reagan approach as a default position on everything. It was a Franken-Ronnie with none of the warmth and conviction of the original. The “Cargo” aka the Go Go 80’s, can only be delivered by putting the Ritualized Reagan, that is Mitt Romney, in the White House. He can then summon the great gleaming beasts from the sky that birth the great wooden eggs filled with the canned goods (aka-worry free prosperity).
This Shackle of Defeat for Romney was exploited. The Ritualized Reagan that he pantomimes doesn’t square with the real Reagan. Reagan was confronting a real threat from Soviet Russians. Reagan was a culture warrior, but only after being a patriotic American type who believed in some practicality, compromise and some tolerance. When Reagan spoke of Libya that country was run by an evil dictator since deceased in fantastic fashion due directly to initiatives taken by the Cargo Cults hated “Anti-Reagan”, President Obama, who realistically could be argued is a truer heir to Reagan’s positions on Libya by doing so. Ritual Reagan is at his weakest on Libya.
Despite a display of unpresidential weakness best left behind in his bumbling and inept reactions to the 9-11 attacks in Libya, Romney revisited the issue at almost every opportunity. Was he doing this because his “Inner Reagan” simply knee jerks him into having to include comments about Libya into his rhetoric? It only hurt him. If someone has a better explanation for this obviously misguided attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on what any other candidate would have rightly moved on from please leave me a comment.
The “rank and file core base republicans’, (read: formerly disavowed extremists from the Wild Wild Allen West Wing of the party) show strong and prevalent evidence of Cargo Cult behavior in social media. They promoted Romney as a Pseudo Reagan “Mitt-siah” capable of summoning the all-important cargo planes. Romney’s one unquestioned credential, ruthless and unaccountable vulture capitalism, is a direct result of the unregulated excesses of the 1980’s and increases Romney’s credibilty as a worthy successor to Reagan. This is manifested best in his regulation hating approach to managing the economy. De-personalization and detachment from reality are evident in the Hoover era bootstrap “Rugged Individualism” that has become part of a negative feedback loop that convinces many Republicans they live in Bill Clinton’s proverbial “log cabin they built themselves”.

24 days after a huge election fail the Republicans STILL can’t figure out how they lost. The Romney Campaign, reduced to a one man show, continued for a couple of days after the defeat just so he could find a way to offend and denigrate people he had overlooked insulting earlier while he still had a modicum of relevance. Campaign staff also issued repeated out of touch statements that certainly seemed delusional to the point of strapping on coconut headphones. Take this as a sign that absolutely nothing has been learned through failure analysis. All indications are that many if not most Republican truly and strongly believe that if they just rain dance longer, faster and harder in preparation for the next election they can somehow avoid losing again in 2016. Their unrealistic Hypothesis-If they had just been more extreme, suppressed the vote more and passed more insane homophobic laws they are SURE they would have won instead of getting walloped by a 3 million votes margin in an Obama cakewalk.

Though some of the cult has sheered away out of fear of losing their seats these are mostly from Blue States and there is no sign of a massive shift to more pragmatic methods of winning elections on the part of rest of the Republican.

Now that Romney has gone from Mitts-siah to whipping boy Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham from Teabagistan jumped feet first into the Ritual Reagan role. Senator Kelly Ayote also tried to get in on this, but apparently if you’re a woman Ritual Reagan

just doesn’t work. Possibly because of another Republican Cult behavior,the Cult of Domesticity, which dictates that women should be ‘kept in their place.” This means that the self hating women of the Republican party are merely tuned out as having ‘too many opinions’ and/or ‘speak a little too much of their minds.” Only Sarah Palin has had any success pretending to be Ronald Reagan. This has routinely blown up on her. When this happens she hides behind her children like they’re Human Shields, basically defaulting to the Cult of Domesticity to deflect criticism by appearing in her ridiculous gun toting Reindeer maiming “Mama Grizzly” mode where she’s beyond reproach.

The Cargo Cult will likely thrive for years to come. In fact it may outlast the GOP itself as the party has lost four of the last 5 elections.